Game Mastering from the Female Perspective

Gencon: Part 2 (Friday)

Friday was a pretty busy day, but my friend Jeff came with me to play RPGs, so we made it through together. Originally, we didn’t have anything until 1 pm, but we decided to get a intro to making a Shadowrun character in. We didn’t have tickets, but I had enough generics (tickets not directly related to an event), and we were the last people on the waiting list allowed in. We also got a bit of time to walk around the dealer floor at this point it took us 2 days though and many hours to get through it all.

Into the Shadows
GM(s): ?
System: Shadowrun 5e
Thoughts: Unfortunately, I don’t have our helpers name, but it was really nice. We all went through the process of making a character, and even in 2 hours with only 4 of us, we weren’t completely done by the time our time was over. It was complicated to say the least, but I think I have the hang of it now. I ended up with an occult investigator who had a corgi spirit animal. Now, I just need to find someone to run a Shadowrun game for me.

The Haunted Doll of Hokkaido (Well, sorta)
GM(s): ?
System: Palladium
Thoughts: When we arrived at the table, we were told that our GM had a family emergency and the game had been canceled. However, the GM there was given permission to run something. We decided to go ahead and play. It was a different system called Palladium that I’ve never seen, but seems to have been around for a bit. It was a mix between percentile rolls and d20. Overall, it seemed to work well, and we had fun running around trying to find a treasure. We were smart enough not to release the evil the treasure contained, though apparently not everyone was so bright.

What the Hex is going on?
GM(s):Thomas Napier
System: d20 modern
Thoughts: This was one of my favorite games of the week. First, it was based on Scooby Doo, and well, I’ve always loved Scooby Doo. There were 5 of us, each playing one of the members of the scooby gang. I played Velma. All the players had a good idea of the general tropes of show. So, we had people running away, slamming ghosts into the wall, and making traps. It was a fun group that was enjoying playing rather than worrying too much about mechanics or “winning”. The GM did a good job at making the characters feel real, but not making the bad guys too powerful. Overall, I’d love to play with this GM again, and the group was great. I’ll probably try to play in a scooby game again next year.

Friday we got out early enough to eat dinner at St. Elmo Steak House. They are famous for their shrimp cocktails. Usually, I’m not a huge fan, so we didn’t order any, but the waiter brought us a bit of the sauce and some crackers. He warned us with “go easy” though it’s cocktail sauce… that was until I took a bite, and fire came out my nose. Apparently, they use lots and lots of horseradish in it. Jeff gave me a funny look when I started going red, until he took a bite. It was funny, but generally, the food there was awesome. If you’re in town that’s the place to get steak.